The long uphill journey of Australia’s rare earth element industry: challenges and opportunities

In recent years, several mining companies worldwide have made efforts towards establishing sustainable value-adding rare earth element (REE) supply chains to compete with China. Lynas and Iluka are two Australian mining companies that recently announced their plans to construct REE refinery plants to process and separate REE oxides in Western Australia and Texas, US. Though promising, such investments entail high risks. This work discusses the status of the Australian REE industry and uses SWOT and risk analyses to identify and evaluate the challenges and opportunities with respect to building an integrated rare earth supply chain outside of China.